Yahoo Autos Watkins Glen IMSA race day news and notes
Race day dawned with more blue sky than has been seen in the last few days at Watkins Glen, but cloud cover soon rolled in to remind competitors that the chance of rain during the Sahlen’s Six Hours is present, and there are plenty of rain tires ready to go in pit lane.
Connor De Phillippi topped the times in the 20-minute morning warmup with a 1m34.539s lap in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8, with teammate Augusto Farfus in the No. 24 only 0.003s off De Phillipi’s time. Jack Aitken also got into the 34s range in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.
Scott Huffaker was the quickest of the LMP2s in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA, and Matthew Bell topped LMP3 for AWA in the No. 13 Duqueine. Jordan Pepper was quickest in GTD PRO in the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo22, and Madison Snow put the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 at the top of GTD.
“Not a lot you can do” to prepare for rain
Last year’s race was interrupted by lightning in the area, followed by rain during the red flag. That messed with a lot of strategies, especially where drive times are concerned. BMW M Team RLL lost a GTD PRO win and Winward Racing lost a GTD victory due to drive time violations, and the red flag/shortened race contributed to that. Given a high probability that weather will affect the race again, is there anything teams can do to prepare for any potential interruptions?
“There’s not a lot you can do,” shrugged Nick Tandy, who will start the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 on pole by virtue of him and Mathieu Jaminet leading the points and qualifying being canceled. “If we talk just about the car setup for a start, you can always run a dry car in the rain. What is very easy to do is lose a lot of time with a wet set-up car in the dry, so invariably in a longer race if you know it’s going to be full wet the whole race OK, you can adjust the setup. But if we’re on and off, mixed conditions, then it has to be set up for the dry. Past that, it’s just a case of keeping an eye on the radar and being heads up, having spotters watching the cameras for any sort of incident, any information they can give to be relayed straight to the driver or the strategist to try and work out what to do.”
Drive time
Minimum drive time for the Pro-Am classes is 1h30m, while minimum drive time for GTP and GTD PRO is 30 minutes, Maximum drive time for all classes is four hours.
Tire allocations no issue
One thing that has come into play in previous races this season is tire allocation. With qualifying for GTP canceled due to the weather, no tires were burned up and the teams still have their seven sets allocated for qualifying and race. Plus, rain tires don’t count against the allocation, so if there is a downpour — as there has been both the last two days — the number of dry-weather tires available decreases in importance.
In addition, IMSA and Michelin have made two sets of the softer-compound SHT tires available to competitors due to temperatures being generally lower than previous Six Hours of The Glen. The allocation doesn’t change, and teams are not required to use the SHT-compound tires.
Glen first-timer
Rafaelle Marciello was a late substitution for Philip Ellis in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG in the GTD class, but the Mercedes AMG driver is well familiar with the team and drivers Indy Dontje and Russell Ward. What he wasn’t familiar with is Watkins Glen International. Like fellow Mercedes AMG works drivers Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella, it’s his first visit to the track. His first impressions?
“It’s nice. I always like when there is walls and grass close to you and not not so much the track limit,” he said. “It is a track where you need to commit, so it’s fun.”
The Glen’s wide-open spaces were a delight for Winward Racing newcomer Marciello. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
Substitution for Jr III
Dylan Murray will drive the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier LMP3 entry in place of Ari Balogh. Balogh was the first driver to slide off in yesterday’s scrubbed qualifying session, and the Ligier was then hit by the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 car driven by Ben Keating. Balogh was not feeling 100 percent and opted to step out of the driver’s seat for today’s race.
How to watch
The Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen starts on Peacock at 10:30am ET before a 10:40 green flag. Peacock will carry the race in its entirety, while USA Network picks up the live broadcast at 2pm ET, carrying through to the finish and post-race. Audio with John Hindaugh, Jeremy Shaw and pit reporter Shea Adam will be available on IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com and SiriusXM radio on channel 207, or on the SiriusXM app on 992.
